Document Type
Article
Journal/Book Title/Conference
Journal of Nanophotonics
Volume
12
Issue
2
Publisher
SPIE
Publication Date
6-13-2018
First Page
1
Last Page
10
Abstract
The work demonstrates an electrospun nanocomposite of recombinant spider silk protein (rSSp) nanofibers with embedded cerium oxide (ceria) nanoparticles. RSSP (MaSp1) has been produced, extracted from goat milk, and fabricated into nanofibers using an electrospinning process. The resulting electrospun nanofibers have a mean diameter of ∼50 nm. Furthermore, ceria nanoparticles of mean diameterions, associated with formed oxygen vacancies. The formed nanocomposite shows promising mechanical properties such as the Young’s modulus, elasticity (or elongation at break), and toughness. In addition, the electrospun mat becomes fluorescent with 520-nm emission upon exposure to UV light, due to excitation of the optically active ceria nanoparticles. Also, the formed nanocomposite shows a decay of its electric resistance over time upon exposure to cyclic loads at different humidity conditions. The synthesized nanocomposite can be utilized in different biomedical, textile, and sensing applications.
Recommended Citation
Kandas, Ishac; Shehata, Nader; Hassounah, Ibrahim; Sobolciak, Patrik; Krupa, Igor; and Lewis, Randolph V., "Optical Fluorescent Spider Silk Electrospun Nanofibers with Embedded Cerium Oxide Nanoparticles" (2018). Biology Faculty Publications. Paper 1595.
https://digitalcommons.usu.edu/biology_facpub/1595
